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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Well, it's the close of a decade and PIANO WORLD is how old??? I thought (and really, I consider myself a freshman member) I'd see what the original PW people think about this site during this decade. You must have see the growth first hand!! This is a really cool site and I learn something every day! This thread has no guidelines except here are some questions- (choose one, none or all)

Ah yes, the Coffee Room. People who think things get contentious around here now should look at some of the big threads in the pre-moderated days of Coffee Room (while it still existed), Pianists Corner and Piano World.

When I look back at some of those threads....no wonder Frank closed it down.

In the very early days people used normal names like Dan, Amy, Alex, Brendan, though a few cool people were more inventive like pianoloverus (still around). There were a lot of us lurking back then before committing to join because it wasn't clear how websites and blogs were supposed to work.

Nobody knew what a flamefest was at first - in fact in the first few years there was more politeness. But that eventually gave way to some passionate fights in the Coffee Room. Most of the fights then and now are about pianos, with occasional dust-ups over composer likes and dislikes.

Ten years ago, certain brand names didn't exist or were just coming on to market, so there was a lot of curiosity about high end pianos like Steingraeber, Fazioli, Estonia, and Mason & Hamlin in its revived form. Very few people had ever seen or played these instruments. Steinway was therefore unchallenged on the high end, and it has been interesting to see their dominance weaken a bit in ten years time with all the competition. Steinway pianos still seem to me by far to be the source of ongoing controversies and fights, and after all this time I still haven't figured out what it is about the instrument that incites so much anger. If you've been around long enough, these flamefests get repetitive and you learn to avoid them, just as you learn to avoid certain teenagers who are convinced they know everything and like to throw out bombshells just for fun. As a general rule, I also stay away from dealer fights because they usually become exercises in name calling.

Perhaps the saddest thing that happened here in the past decade was the Piano Superstore fiasco. A lot of people learned to be a little less trusting of what people say or claim on the internet after that incident. But 98% of the time the information and opinions you get here are valuable and without any doubt Piano World has helped a lot of people become better musicians, more astute shoppers, and if you are in the piano business, better manufacturers and salespeople. That is quite an accomplishment so Frank B. has much for which he can be proud.

Well, in my time here perhaps the most interesting thread was the case of the disappearing Boesendorfer. The one that supposedly was left in a hotel room somewhere. This was also a thread about unscrupulous behavior and catching the guilty party.

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"If we continually try to force a child to do what he is afraid to do, he will become more timid, and will use his brains and energy, not to explore the unknown, but to find ways to avoid the pressures we put on him." (John Holt)

there's a narrative of the early days of pianoworld in "grand obsession" in chapter 6 "piano world" (naturally) and in chapter 15 "the piano crawl" in which you also learn something about frank's background in music, and also about the background and personal interests of several other early forum members.

i came on board when there were just a handful of us, and it was a much more peaceable universe back then. the attacks of sept. 11th set us off in a different direction for awhile, which you can also rediscover in a forum frank created just for discussing that event.

it's really quite remarkable that frank has been able to preserve this long social history. thank you, frank, for creating this place and maintaining it. i know it's a hugely important part of many of our lives, and some of my best friends in real life are now people i first encountered at piano world.

Over the last seven years, the main thing I have learned from Pianoworld is how most other people, especially musicians, think about music. That has been the real eye-opener for me. I completely lacked any understanding of what might be termed conventional musical perception. I met Matthew Collett through this site, even though he was living just a few miles away from me, and at his piano parties I have met and heard several other interesting players. Such is the power of the internet to bring people together constructively.

I spend much less time posting on forums of any sort recently because I am too busy actually playing and making recordings but I still enjoy reading what people have to say every day or two.

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"It is inadvisable to decline a dinner invitation from a plump woman." - Fred Hollows

Well, once upon at time, prior to September 9, 2006, there was no "Just for those Totally Devoted to Chopin" thread. Now it's hard to imagine ABF forum without it. We've had Hershey Felder (Gershwin, Monsieur Chopin, Beethoven as I Knew Him)and Dr Jeff Kallberg (Chopin at the Boundaries) post there. We've had Angela Lear (The Original Chopin)as a consultant. We've had our own representative (LisztAddict) make it into the second round of the Amateur International Chopin Competition in Warsaw this past October. We initiated the first composer themed recitals and coined the term "e-cital." We owe a great debt to LovesChopinToo Much (our Kathleen) for starting and nurturing it. The thread now has more than 5,600 entries and over 112,000 views. I don't know if this is some sort of internet record but I think it might possibly be.

the coffee room was insane sometimes, where you can read everything from WMD to Bush vs. Gore and etc. and believe it or not, many people argued about WMD as if it really existed somewhere in a Iraq secret place... just think how insane and intense that coffee room became then... so, it was closed forever, and i don't miss it.

Elene
1000 Post Club Member
Registered: 12/26/07
Posts: 1425
Loc: Land of Enchantment

I can't believe I've been hanging around here for 2 years now, mostly in the Devoted to Chopin corner. I remember quite a few years ago looking for something like this, but it didn't yet exist. (I'd been in a lute discussion group where the flames flew thick and fast, and had had enough of that!)

At Piano World I've met some of the most fascinating people I've encountered in my whole life, and I feel privileged to count them as friends. Thank you to everyone!

the coffee room was insane sometimes, where you can read everything from WMD to Bush vs. Gore and etc. and believe it or not, many people argued about WMD as if it really existed somewhere in a Iraq secret place... just think how insane and intense that coffee room became then... so, it was closed forever, and i don't miss it.

Hmmmm...do I hear a can opener?

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Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons.

Well, I'll 'fess up. I was roped in by the softmozart stuff I'm much less naive now.

(I'll also 'fess up to being the only person my age I know who will admit to getting signatures in favor of the Vietnam war when I was college. I'm much less naive now.) (oh - what was that sound? a can opener?)

I owe so much to Piano World and to the people who have posted and continue to post here. I have been informed, inspired, awed, amused, entertained, enthralled, moved, motivated and most important -- supported.

Like many of us, I was an "off and on" again pianist. Mostly "off," I'm afraid. Lack of patience and easily frustrated, the piano was an instrument of torture for me for many years. But reading of the experiences of people here, I discovered I was not alone. AND I found so much encouragement that I finally, and with long-lost confidence, sat down on that bench and began to realize that I did possess the ability to play quite well, if I just didn't quit. My mantra became "Don't give up!"

I want to thank each and every one of you and Frank, a very special debt of gratitude for creating this amazing place. It is my life-line.

My hopes for a happy and healthy New Year to all,Kathleen

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After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own." Oscar Wilde, 1891

I've been around here since before this incarnation of PW, and there are both constants and variables that reinforce "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."

There were a few passionate, informed pianists who wrote intelligently and articulately about music they knew a great deal about. I miss them and their posts. That characteristic, however, has not changed, even though the particular individuals have long since disappeared. They have been replaced by others, equally passionate, equally articulate and equally well-informed. This is one reason I keep coming back here.

There have also come and gone those who knew little but who wrote, unashamedly, a lot about what they didn't know. That characteristic seems ever present.

There always have been - and undoubtedly always will be - those enthusiastic students in their first year of lessons - or their first year of teaching themselves - who will ask how long it will take them to master "La Campanella, if I start right now, since I've been already been playing the piano for six months."

There also have been a number of genuinely inquisitive pianists, not yet well-trained or advanced in classical music, who have come (and gone) but who, during their short appearances here, asked questions that showed a growing love of music and a willingness to learn from others. I often wonder what has happened to some of them and hope that their musical interests continue to grow.

Those of us who have long been "permanent residents" of this forum owe so much, I believe, to Frank. Without his efforts and interest, some of us would be vox clamans in deserto or as a piano without a soundboard!

I owe so much to Piano World and to the people who have posted and continue to post here. I have been informed, inspired, awed, amused, entertained, enthralled, moved, motivated and most important -- supported.

Like many of us, I was an "off and on" again pianist. Mostly "off," I'm afraid. Lack of patience and easily frustrated, the piano was an instrument of torture for me for many years. But reading of the experiences of people here, I discovered I was not alone. AND I found so much encouragement that I finally, and with long-lost confidence, sat down on that bench and began to realize that I did possess the ability to play quite well, if I just didn't quit. My mantra became "Don't give up!"

I want to thank each and every one of you and Frank, a very special debt of gratitude for creating this amazing place. It is my life-line.